Despite the disappointing outcome of tonight’s election, there is no question that over the past year this recall effort sent a message to Scott Walker that his brand of divisive politics is offensive and wrong. Thousands of Wisconsinites mounted this effort in the face of a flood of out of state, secret and corporate special interest money– amounting to a massive $31 million war chest for Governor Walker to just $4 million on our side.

Readers will recall that Wasserman Schultz was accused of abandoning the Democrat activists to their fate as it became clear there was little hope that Walker could be defeated. The Daily Kos wrote when the recall effort was clearly flagging:

If Walker wins in Wisconsin she apparently believes

“there aren’t going to be any repercussions,”

Because:

“But I think it’ll be, at the end of the day, a Wisconsin-based election, and like I said, across the rest of the country and including in Wisconsin, President Obama is ahead.”

The activists at the Daily Kos could be forgiven for thinking that what Wasserman Schultz really said was “we know Barrett is toast in Wisconsin. If Obama comes anywhere near that debacle he will be tarred with the taint of defeat. Therefore we are going to throw Barrett to the dogs and however many others as we need to so that President Obama can win in November.”

Schultz’s statement continued on a note of confident, almost boastful defiance.

And as we turn our attention to the fall, we will not cede an inch in Wisconsin to Mitt Romney who has been behind in virtually every single recent poll and who wants to go back to the same failed policies of the past from which Wisconsin is recovering. And while we’re not taking anything for granted, if Mitt Romney thinks he’s going to be the first Republican to win Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan he’s got another thing coming.

One wonders who Wasserman Schultz’s speechwriter is. The tone of her statement seems straight out of Radio Tokyo in the closing days of World War 2 when they boasted of having sunk “17 American aircraft carriers, 28 battleships, 73 cruisers and 200 destroyers” without bothering to mention that the supposed fleet action was taking place right off the shores of Japan with completely the opposite results.

It is to be hoped that she actually believes her own press release. But if she doesn’t, so what? It’s all about controlling the narrative isnt it? Well maybe not. Once past a certain point, a system in collapse finds that all of its narratives unintentionally become comedy skits.

By Obama, I think we will win in a huge landslide this November. Any talk of Barack Obama’s defeat is merely an insane prattle. The fact is that as soon as his opponents speak out against him, we besiege them and slaughter them. Wherever Barack Obama’s opponents go they will find themselves encircled by billions of Obama’s supporters. Romney and the Tea Partiers will be burnt. We are going to tackle them. We are going to hit them with shoes! Barack Obama’s opponents will be committing suicide by the thousands come this November. Be assured, Barack Obama’s Presidency for Life is safe, protected. – Baghdad Debbie

Well it certainly is a happy day today. The arrogant, overpaid public sector got the adjustment they deserve, at least in Wisconsin.

I saw a comparison to Isengard and Barad-dur on the previous thread and I’m hoping it will stand up.

Only a short celebration and then onward, though. This is far from over. Wag the dog scenario, a Moby McVeigh, and even worse attempts at fraud than the 119% embarassment of Democrat Madison are all distinct possibilities. There will be much Democrat evil wrought between now and November.

Baghdad Debbie seems about right. Missing from the DNC narrative, and maybe the reason that Obama stayed clear of Wisconsin, is that Barrett won the Dem’s runoff by distancing himself from the public sector unions. So even if the Dems won the unions lost.

San Diego and San Jose, 10th and 11th largest cities, also had election results yesterday that put a hurting on public sector unions.

Joe Voter (even in California) is finally catching on that public sector unions are a tumor on the body politic that will gladly kill the host for a few more years of personal benefits.

Unfortunately, saying “We’ve sunk 17 American aircraft carriers” can cause the reaction “17? 17!! They had 17! And they’re still bombing us? We still have Hellcats overhead every friggin day? How many carriers do they have, 300?! By the way, how many do we have? Anybody seen even one for the last year?”

For Debbie, saying “They put in $31M to our measely $4M.” should bring the reaction, “$31M to our $4M? They have so much money that they can do that in one state? How much money do they really have and how much do we really have? How many of our former donors are now their donors? Look, Scott Walker ain’t no Obama but he ain’t no Romney, either. He has all the personality of a mashed potato sandwich. If he can do this to us….”

Hirohito ended things with the most cowardly surrender ever – broadcast off a phonograph record, men were slitting their stomachs and women jumping off cliffs while the emperor literally snuck out the palace and fled. (Don’t worry, Mr. Sanger, I can say this virtually anywhere these days…)

I don’t blame Debbie too much for what she said. Politicians can be expected to say whatever is necessary to keep the mojo running; it’s part of their job description.

But in reality, this was a savage blow to the old DNC coalition and it is also indicative of an historical discontinuity. Think about it: the public sector unions, who usually never lose, just lost. That means that things are changing rapidly, and the world around us no longer operates by the same rules most of us are used to.

Yet I wouldn’t be too generous with the congratulations. It wasn’t conservative ideology which wasted the unions; demographics and economics were their enemy. If we can learn anything from this, it is that untrenching Leftism from the corridors of power is going to be more difficult than just winning an argument or proving a point. The Left will hang on by any means it can. If it took this much effort just to prevent a governor from being recalled in a single state, just imagine how much it will take to break apart public education or reform the tax code. True, the momentum is now on our side and success has a way of feeding off itself; but we have at least a generation and a half of work to do. The principal threat might not even be the Left, but fatigue.

The activists at the Daily Kos could be forgiven for thinking that what Wasserman Schultz really said was “we know Barrett is toast in Wisconsin. If Obama comes anywhere near that debacle he will be tarred with the taint of defeat. Therefore we are going to throw Barrett to the dogs and however many others as we need to so that President Obama can win in November.”

“Let joy be unconfined. Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons, and necking in the parlor.”
- “A Night at the Opera”

The Democrats will be shocked shocked to discover that the resources they wasted in Wisconsin will not be available for the Fall campaign.

Cornered beasts are dangerous. That is no reason to ignore them or let them run amok. Grifters will become dangerous. Kimberlin has started something.

They have radicalized hundreds of foot soldiers, union workers or high school/college students, through this campaign. In twenty years we will hear from some of them again, as public figures or as twisted criminals.

“Don’t back no losers.”

Obama resembles a boy with warts and bad breath trying to approach the cute girls in school. He is a political leper. Obama is so far from “cool” that the Republicans may want to start using the word as a punch line.

The White House and the DNC can try to spin this any way they want to, but it will NOT work. This was a blowout and a major, MAJOR, victory for the Republicans. But the union now needs to ask themselves an important question. Do they want to tie themselves to a sinking ship with Obama and lose in November, or do they want to cut the best deal that they can with Romney, hoping that if he does win he won’t be too harsh on them? Unions, like any other special interest group, know that they’re only going to get anywhere if their side wins. And right now, it’s not looking good for Obama. So if they continue supporting Obama and he gets beaten badly in November, where do they go from there?

The best thing the unions can do for the Republicans is go all in for Obama. If they do that, it will be easy to continue tieing Obama to a big-spending, selfish, special interest group that’s only interested in getting money for its members rather than doing what’s best for this nation. And, given his lifetime support for unions, it would be easy to paint Obama as a typical union hack politician (which we all know he is). So, go ahead AFL-CIO and SEIU, continue supporting Obama. Make my day.

This sort of reaction from Democrat talking heads was predictable. The odds were clearly heavily against them from at least a week ago, and they couldn’t conceal the fact. They had to distance themselves from the adverse result to maintain a credible veneer of confidence about the upcoming national elections.

Their problem today is less that the recall effort failed than that Walker’s practical successes are inspiring governors in other states to emulate his policies. That will further weaken the government-employee unions, which are the Democrats’ shock troops and a major source of Democrat campaign funds. Present trends continuing, the Democrats are headed for yet another monumental shellacking come November.

Radio Tokyo said today that the United States Navy barely survived a fierce attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy in Leyte Gulf. During the battle, the largest in the history of naval warfare, the Imperial Navy was virtually destroyed.

Admiral Oldendorf, fighting for his life, “capped the T” on the Imperial Fleet’s line of battle while Admiral Halsey fended off the powerful Japanese carrier force by terminating its existence.

In their desperation the US Sixth and Eighth Armies invaded the Philippines in a futile bid to destroy the Japanese Army, the bulk of which was on Luzon. Latest reports indicate that General Yamashita’s forces, which together amount to more than all the Japanese garrisons in all other theaters of the Pacific combined, are holed up in a valley near Bontoc, Mountain Province, terrifying the entire US Command.

The total desperation of the General Krueger’s forces was illustrated by the fact that Mountain Province headhunters have been unleashed to police up the so-called stragglers who are much amused by these ineffectual efforts. “We’re not going to lose our heads over these overblown reports,” a spokesman said.

The Imperial Fleet sends a strong signal, from its new base in Davy Jones’ locker, that Admiral Nimitz’s tactics are completely useless. The triumphant Japanese are now pursuing the last survivors of the US Pacific fleet towards Tokyo Bay, where their surrender is expected at any time.

This claim by Wasserman and others that they were outspent $30 million to $4 million in Wisconsin is yet another whopping lie worthy of Tokyo Rose. The Barrett campaign may have raised only $4 million, but the real action was in the Super-PACS. One of the unions’ PACS, We Are Wisconsin, raised over $5 million in the last month alone. And of that $5 million, a whopping three donations, totalling $750, were from private individuals. Who are they kidding, only $4 million spent? They laid it all on the line in Wisconsin.

Of course they’ll use this lie to attack Citizen’s United, as they are wont. Remember, that case had the Solicitor General of the United States, one Elena Kagan, arguing to the Supreme Court that the government should have the right to ban books for political reasons. And they’re mad that side lost.

This is a perfect encapsulation of what’s happened in Wisconsin these last two years: Walker and the Republicans used a narrow mandate to enact unexpectedly dramatic public-sector reforms, and the Democrats responded by upping the ante significantly, with mass protests, walkouts by state legislators and finally a recall campaign.

Douthat maintains that the decline in the usable surplus has intensified the ideological divide. In that he is undoubtedly correct. There’s not enough money left to square the circle. Hence politics is becoming more strident.

Between our slowing growth and our unsustainable spending commitments, “the days when lawmakers could give to some Americans without shortchanging others are over; the politics of deciding who loses what, and when and how, is upon us.” In this era, debates will be increasingly zero-sum, bipartisan compromise will be increasingly difficult, and “the rules and norms of our politics that several generations have taken for granted” will fade away into irrelevance.

But that is exactly as it has always been. The historical role of conservatives has been to create wealth. Liberalism’s role has been to spend it. Since there’s nothing left to spend it only natural that America should lapse into a prolonged period of conservative wealth generation before enlightened spenders have a hope in hell of returning to power.

As long as everybody understands that’s the way it works then political misunderstandings can be avoided. Unfortunately liberalism, with its emphasis on redistribution and spending, also wants to be known as the party that “made America great”. They’re not content with the title, “the party that made America get into hock”. It would be nice to think that liberalism “made America great”, but of course it is only true insofar as it made the national debt great.

If liberals wait until enough money is accumulated again, then they can begin their campaign of redistribution once more so that the whole cycle can begin again. Their campaign for a perfect world will resume — someday. Right now people have got to eat in an imperfect world.

Currently the imperative need is to unleash productivity. Tomorrow, when there’s money in the bank, Liberals can convince everyone that snail darters, green energy, avoiding evil sugared drinks and finding better tasting arugula are the biggest issues in the world.

Ironically the electorate has to be vote conservative today if there is any hope of liberal spending tomorrow. The Left should celebrate Walker’s victory. Had he lost then Wisconsin would have been bankrupt and where would that have put the Democratic party?

At the heart of it all is what posters # 11 and 12 said. It all has to do with an overpaid public sector that is now, in many states, making more than private sector workers and with much better benefits. The point one needs to remember is that public sector workers in Wisconsin were paying nothing towards their health insurance and retirements. I don’t know about California but in most other states public sector employees pay into their retirement funds and their health insurance. It was this disparity that resonated in Wisconsin. The proof is that Barrett and crew didn’t even mention the collective bargaining rights issue towards the end of the recall effort.

I’m sure there is a treasure trove of video clips showing W-S and other Democrat leaders beating the drums regarding the Occupation of the Wisconsin state house and the fleebaggers. Somebody needs to explain to her that when you start a fight, you need to finish it.

Well it looks like the dems did not take it so well. According to Drudge and the A/P Romney’s private e-mail was hacked. Now who else would do that except for an dem operative? Let the games begin. They are so loosers and DW-S is just as upset as Ed Shultz at MSNBC

Statistic I heard yesterday. In Wisconsin, before Walker, public employees made an average of 128% of what private sector equivalents did. After Walker they make “only” 122%. Boy, that Walker guy savaged them. Y’all want to get together some blankets and cans of beans to send up there?

And yesterday in San Jose and San Diego, cities with large Dem populations, they voted at over 60% to cut public employee pensions.

It’s not just the cutbacks. It’s the momentum. They are called “Progressives” because they never stop. Get public employees paid at 150% of the private sector and they’ll be looking for 160%. Get up to 50% of the jobs held by minorities and they’ll try for 100%. Get 100% of the votes and they’ll try for 119%. “Forward!” because, if they even ever look back they’ll see the tidal wave.

The momentum is gone. The wave is cresting. The rip current is gonna be fierce. And the lifeguards are on strike.

Debbie Downer is lying through her teeth…Money spent by unions and dems was over 18 million….Barrett personally raised the 4 million she is lying about. These people are pathological with the lying…it is beyond description.

Never mind the millions that Dems pissed away in their primary…I guess that didn’t count, did it? When the union backed candidate lost in the primary…the unions bailed….that was their call. The Republicans committed to their candidate, Debbie…on the ground, and with their pocketbooks.

Union money is going to dry up as other states adopt the “pro-choice” policies of Walker…and protect union workers from arbitrary, confiscatory forced membership. Its about time that this money-laundering operation is shut down….it has propped up these marxists long enough.

It was a big night for pension reform, with a San Diego measure also winning by a wide margin. City employee unions who argued the measures are illegal were expected to challenge both in court.

But voter approval of San Jose’s Measure B puts Reed and the city in the vanguard of efforts to shrink taxpayer bills for generous government pension plans. Passage also strengthen’s Reed’s hand as he and his City Council allies work to enact the measure’s reforms with a vote next week to reduce pensions for new hires.

“I want to thank the voters of San Jose for their commitment to fiscal reform and to creating a more sustainable future for our children and grandchildren,” Reed said as returns were coming in. He added in an interview that he expected a big win after talking with residents around the city and called it a victory not only for taxpayers who have watched city services trimmed as pension expenses surged, but also for employees whose retirement plans will be more sustainable with the changes.

The San Jose and San Diego votes drew interest around the country as a gauge of voter support for reforming pensions at the ballot box. Gov. Jerry Brown’s pension reform proposals have gained little headway in the Legislature.

Voters like Howard Delano of Willow Glen were tired of watching their city shovel more and more tax money into government pensions far more generous than their own retirement.

“It’s out of control,” Delano, 60, said after dropping off his ballot. “Nobody gives me a pension.”

But Yolanda Cruz, president of the city’s largest union, called the measure “an unfortunate way to spend taxpayer money fighting it in court because we will definitely take it there. Taxpayer money would be better used getting services back.”

Current employees keep pension credits already earned but must pay up to 16 percent more of their salary to continue that benefit or choose a more modest and affordable plan for their remaining years on the job.

Limit retirement benefits for future hires by requiring them to pay half the cost of a pension.

Suspend current retirees’ 3 percent yearly pension raises up to five years if the city declares a fiscal crisis.

Discontinue “bonus” pension checks to retirees.

Require voter approval for future pension increases.

Change disability retirement with the aim of limiting it to those whose injuries prevent them from working.

Reed proposed Measure B a year ago after his efforts — from championing new tax measures to imposing 10 percent pay cuts on city employees — failed to erase budgetary red ink that has soaked the city ledger for a decade. Though the city projects a modest $9 million surplus in the upcoming budget, thanks largely to the pay cuts and hundreds of job cuts, a $22.5 million shortfall is expected the year after.

A key deficit driver has been the yearly pension bill that has more than tripled from $73 million to $245 million in a decade, far outpacing the 20 percent revenue growth and gobbling more than a fifth of the city’s general fund. A city audit blamed the rise on a combination of benefit increases, flawed cost assumptions and investment losses.

City audits and news reports also assailed a system in which the city’s police and firefighters take tax-free disability retirements at rates far exceeding those in other big cities.

Government employee unions led by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees spent more than $440,000 toward defeating Measure B. Business and taxpayer groups spent more than $682,000 toward its passage.

If we can learn anything from this, it is that untrenching Leftism from the corridors of power is going to be more difficult than just winning an argument or proving a point.

You’re right.

It is as our host has said in a previous thread, the rank and file of the left cannot be converted (because they have too much of a stake both financially and philosophically in maintaining the narrative) and therefore prefailing will require overwhelming dedication and a rooting out, metaphorically, street by street and building by building. Winning an argument here or there is nice but won’t suffice. Conservatives have, since the advent of television, made the mistake of believing that because their ideas are empirically more functional than those of the left that that should stand on its own and be sufficient to convince hordes of voters to go their way. This despite nearly half the country voting for things that do not work as well in the real world. “We won the war of ideas, why do we lose elections?” The reality is that charisma of leftist politicians and the inability of many people to distinguish between reality and carefully crafted visually compelling fiction means that ideas by themselves aren’t enough. I’ve pissed off a lot of conservatives telling them this. Get over it, guys, life isn’t fair. The center/right needs to defeat the left in the charisma realm, and in the realm of the heart as well as the realm of the mind. It’s not what we wish, but wishes don’t always come true.

The organic and inexorable forces of demographics and finance are surely a help, as you point out, but not enough.

Li’l Debbie shows signs of the same lock-step, groupthink, fantasy-based mentality prevalent in many densely populated municipalities, as demonstrated last night: Dane county numbly repeated what its denizens were told, while most of the rest of the State turned out to be the free-thinking, reality-based voters who handed Walker an even greater victory than last time.

If – as Debbie claimed – Wisconsin was a “dry run” for November, I won’t be surprised to see this same sort of free thinking reflected in a shift among Independents. After all, if one is voting based on choice of policy rather than cult of personality or party affiliation, Romney becomes a fairly acceptable candidate to a any ‘centrist’ or ‘moderate’ who looks at his record (vs. Obama’s abysmal serial failures) rather than listening to the lilberal media hype.

DWS made the following statement: “And while we’re not taking anything for granted, if Mitt Romney thinks he’s going to be the first Republican to win Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan he’s got another thing coming.”

If she is going to use old folksy expressions, she should at least get them right.

(WSAU) Scott Walker became the nation’s first governor ever to survive a recall election – and it was not as close as many predicted. With over 99-percent of the vote counted, the Republican Walker led Democrat Tom Barrett 53-to-46 percent, with Brookfield kidney specialist Hari Trivedi getting the other one-percent.

Barrett only carried one-of-every-six counties, including his home county of Milwaukee and Madison’s Dane County by roughly 2-to-1 margins. Barrett also won in La Crosse, Portage, Rock, Iowa, Kenosha, Columbia, Menominee, Ashland, Bayfield, and Douglas counties. Although some places reported turnouts of 80-percent, the statewide total was only around 58-percent. 2.5-million people voted, about 300,000 less than what state officials had projected.

In that hour, the great battle was over; and not a single foe was left within the land of Cheese. The Union Thugs and Marxists had fled – south to Chicago, east to New York, west to the fetid dens of Hollywood. And to the land of the Statists on the banks of the Potomac came only a tale from far off: a rumor of the wrath and terror of the Badgers.

For anyone concerned with the size, cost, and intrusiveness of government, dark clouds continue to hang over the Romney campaign.

For example, if as is often said, “personnel is policy,” Romney’s decision to name former Utah governor Michael Leavitt to lead his presidential transition team is particularly disturbing, especially since Politico reports that Leavitt may become White House chief of staff if Romney wins.

As George W. Bush’s Secretary of HHS, Leavitt was a principle architect of the Medicare prescription-drug benefit, which created the first new federal entitlement program since the Great Society. And Leavitt continues to call the program “a success,” despite the fact that it will add as much as $17 trillion to Medicare’s unfunded liabilities.

As governor, Leavitt was a tax-and-spend liberal. During his ten years in office, real spending per capita rose by nearly a third. Leavitt pushed for higher taxes on Internet sales, gasoline, and cigarettes. And, as head of the National Governors Association, he lobbied for a federal law to allow states to tax out-of-state Internet companies. He also blocked several attempts by the Utah legislature to cut taxes, including a $25 million state income tax cut in 2001. Between 1996 and 2002, Leavitt never received a grade higher than “C” on Cato’s Fiscal Report Card, and twice earned a failing grade. In 2000, he ranked below Vermont’s Howard Dean, and, in 2002, he scored lower than 7 of 16 Democratic governors.

Of even greater concern, Leavitt has spent the last two years lobbying on behalf of Obamacare. Leavitt’s company, a Utah-based consultancy called Leavitt Partners, has raked in huge profits helping states set up exchanges under the law. In fact, Leavitt’s firm has doubled in size over the two years since the health care law was signed. And, Leavitt hasn’t just made money from Obamacare grant money, he has used his influence to urge state lawmakers to set up exchanges. He has publicly said that he opposes repeal of at least this portion of the new health-care law. Given Romney’s rather spotty history on the health-care issue — to be charitable — Leavitt’s appointment is not a great sign.

Look, most sane people realize (will have realized) something’s got to be done about the uncheck increasing power and powergrab of the unholy union between public sector unions and government/politicians rewarding them.

This WI recall election showcases it only takes one brave soul to stick to his gun, doing what a person was elected to do. The old photo of the one lone individual with shopping bags stood in front of the advancing tanks in Tienannman Square came to mind.

Hopefully this is a sign that a line in the sand “Ye Shalt Not Cross” had been drawn, and the right side maintain the steadfast.

#33:
“prefailing (prevailing?) will require overwhelming dedication and a rooting out, metaphorically, street by street and building by building.”

Then, metaphorically, we are in the urban battle phase of this war. Hardest battle to fight when the enemy has significant terrain advantages. Expect significant casualties. The Right will have to be like the Marines in the second battle of Fallujah and never give up.

Oh no, please don’t say that wretchard, it sounds too much like the money worship which is Rush Limbaugh’s greatest fault and is echoed by Hannity, their equation of “rich” and “job creators” which isn’t even a tiny bit true.

Conservatives – conserve. They conserve money, traditions, memes, fine china, strawberries, whatever. It’s virtually an anti-conservative move to create a new anything. When liberals want to break things because that’s what *today’s* liberals consider to be free-thinking, conserving old habits may seem sort of wealth-creating, but only in a defensive manner.

And in the west, conservatives may conserve the free market system against socialism, but that does not in itself create wealth or unleash productivity, it is merely the *freedom* for some to do that.

In the US most jobs are created by small business, generally people with modest means simply looking out for themselves. At least that’s the tradition, I’m not going to promise it still holds since 2008 or will still hold in 2018. And of the jobs NOT created by small business, most are created by big corporations, NOT any rich individuals. It is the money in the corporations, which is mostly a matter of balance sheets and not cash, that creates jobs.

I would also roll my eyes at the “unleash productivity” meme. Again, don’t prevent drilling because you don’t want oil, which is the basic leftist position these days, don’t destroy productivity – conserve it, I suppose. But out big, humongous economic problem these days is not productivity but the structural issues of globalization. Anything we can do they can do cheaper, copying whatever tricks we may have and cutting corners elsewhere, like on the living standards of their citizens.

The real problem with conservativism is it doesn’t lend itself to flashy slogans that grab the spirit. And the real issue here is freedom, not liberal or conservative. Of course “liberal” is a complete misnomer anymore, these fool democrats aren’t the least bit liberal, they just all want to break things to see what happens, eat the seed corn today, and build a bridge to the sun. “Liberal” once upon a time had the implications of freedom. “Progressive” of course was hijacked in this way long ago. The Republicans of Lincoln’s time were the technocrats who wanted to use machinery instead of slaves, that kind of progressivism should be a Republican theme today (except it seems to threaten even more jobs!).

The right needs an active theme, but OMG let it not be a worship of money.

#42, why some of us were hoping for a Sarah rather than a Mitt. The sudden and relentless reforms that need to happen won’t. Mittens will tinker at the edges rather than pursue a true reform agenda. He hasn’t earned the nickname Mittoast for no reason

The Wisconsin result is great news, but probably in the long term the elections in San Diego & San Jose will have more impact. Rollbacks in excessive public sector pensions are now firmly on the table. Along with tax increases and military cutbacks, they will be one of the options considered by politicians whenever a government finds itself short of cash — and almost all governments are short of cash these days.

Government pension cut-backs used to be “the saving that dare not speak its name”. No more! That election result is one small step for San Diego, a giant leap for modern government.

Of course, nudging public pension obligations back onto a sustainable track is no panacea. Many other issues will need to be addressed to bring societies back to stability & progress. But, as Chairman Mao used to say, “The 6,000 mile March began with a single step”.

The fact that public worker union membership dropped by about half since Act 10 became law and union dues no longer could be automatically deducted from members pay checks, speaks volumes as to the real meaning of the Walker win. When given the choice of whether to stay in the Union, half of the members are voting no. That’s what has the union leadership in a panic and no matter how much money they throw at the Dems, the Dems can’t stop the union rank and file from bolting. The other winner under ACT 10 is the ability for school districts to bid out health insurance instead of being forced to buy from the WEA monopoly carrier. This strikes at the heart of Obamacare government monopoly provided insurance mandates. Really a double whammy against big government and big unions!

You must consider that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is nothing, but a blond mouth piece for Obama and his bunch of minions. She has been programed to say what they want and if she had a brain she would probably take it out and play with it. The woman is so vain as to think that because she was chosen to be the mouth piece for the Democrats that her opinion really counts. I pray FL has wised up and votes her OUT in November and all Dems in the Senate who refuse to vote on the 30 plus job bills that was passed by the House. What we need in this country is for NE to RECALL Harry Reid.

Hirohito was just being smart, he saw the plans for Operation Downfall, the atom bombs, firestorms, chemical warfare and the impending invasion by the Russian’s.
Hirohito knew what was coming and opted out saving literally the entire Japanese Islands and the people of Japan.

“Government pension cut-backs used to be “the saving that dare not speak its name”. No more! That election result is one small step for San Diego, a giant leap for modern government.” And there’s another “Saving that dare not speak its name” so I won’t. But if you think the public pension fight is bad what’s coming next will make it look like a church social.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz sounds like Baghdad Bob talking tough when you could see the US Armor in the background, yet telling the cameras “they will not invade, we are defeating them…” Should rename her Baghdad Debbie reporting for Obama. Surely they share the same Physiologist or Therapist…

Don’t you think it has more to do with fundamental philosophy about social interaction? I like the old metaphor – ‘give a man a fish or teach a man to fish’.

I recall Michelle say something like ‘…some people are going to have to make do with smaller slice of the pie…’.

A good response would be – No! Let’s foster an economy where people can bake their own pie. Everybody who wants to work needs to be able to get some kind of job. Trouble comes when gov’t thinks that it can mandate that each job pay a ‘liveable wage’. It cannot. Not every job is efficacious for supporting a family of 4.

There has to be entry level jobs. Jobs you keep just long enough to demonstrate that you are willing and able to work. Then someone else who needs ‘more qualified’ employees offers a better job. The riff-raff has been differentiated.

Conservatives are wise enough to realize that we cannot, by fiat, determine a minimum standard of living across the entire nation, while simultaneously swinging open the gates of the city to trade from all nations.

As you correctly observe, the standard of living in some of those nations is very dismal compared to others. Those folks will ‘take’ certain jobs. And they want them. And it’s very important for them to have them.

The defeat of the DNC/union strangle hold on Wisconsin’s financial future is a WONDERFUL thing. Hopefully this glimmer of sanity will spread to the rest of the country and we can start to rebuild America. The once good thing the unions represented has morphed into a ravenous cancer that has all but destroyed America. As to Wasserman needs a serious psyc evaluation and meds. She is infected with liberalism which prevents ANY common sense or rational analytic thinking.

Some California news. Apparently the state did NOT pass yet another stupid tax to fund some socially trendy technology move – Prop 29 would have put another buck a pack tax on cigs to fund cancer research. Yeah I want Governor Brown’s input on that. San Jose and San Diego both passed modest reforms on public employee pensions. Good, but barely a beginning. Combined with Wisconsin, mebbe it’s a trend. California also adopted a “top two” system, where the top two vote-getters in the primary (for all offices other than President). In places, this does have two Democrats facing off. Hey L3, is this a good thing after all?

Unions, like any other special interest group, know that they’re only going to get anywhere if their side wins.

Ironically, prosperity — which is likely to come with a Romney presidency (the debate is only on how robust it will be)will be good for private-sector unions: so, if they’re smart, they should switch sides, knowing that Romney is not really a conserative.

As VDH has said, “Conservative” refers to traditional founding father beliefs -which in their day were considered to be absolutely radical. “Inalienable Rights that are self evident?” “Consent of the governed?” Radical! Insane! What, no devine right of kings?

Leftism represents not something new but a return to the old. A few top people decide everything: Monarchy. Some people are more equal than others by virtue of their birthright: Royalty.

True Conservatism is radical by the standards of the 18th century and also radical by the standards of today’s Left.

Yahoo! is proving to be a poster boy for media distortion. One headline denies that Walker’s victory “proves anything,” and another cites a poll that “shows” 54% of Americans “in favor” of gay marriage; the fact that every time gay marriage comes to a popular vote it loses doesn’t seem to matter.

Feral cat, I really wanted you to say, “We will roast their stomachs!” My favorite line from Baghdad Bob.

Most of us are happy as a lark in the park this morning but some have taken to Twitter to blare that they want Scott Walker killed – one tweet after another. These people are sick. This started as soon as the governor took office and now they’re doubling down. All of our Republican legislators have been subjected to this barrage of hate and it’s not all aimed at them, either. Their families, including their children, have all been threatened with death in its various forms. I could puke when I see those mealy-mouthed liars make their public pronouncements as to how we need to have civility in this state. If the Democrats would shut up for 10 minutes you’d hear nothing but crickets all over this state!

Perhaps this is the reason every pundit in the country thought we Republicans weren’t working hard behind the scenes. People who never even voted before went to the polls and were happy to press the check screen before Walker’s and Kleefisch’s names.

To add to what is going on in San Diego and San Jose – the first thing they should do is if the unions have their own insurance companies, make them submit competitive bids for their public union health care. Millions have been saved in Wisconsin because it was found that those insurance companies were ripping off the taxpayers up to a million plus in some school districts. There are 457 school districts in this state and it gives you an idea of what’s been going on in this state. I think the minimum I saw was about $300,000. I’m not sure why the executives in this insurance company and the school district administrators aren’t in jail for this flagrant thievery. The teachers’ unions wanted their members dues, but this skim from the teachers’ union insurance company was just the Lamaborghini icing on the Porsche cake.

Recall the last discussion of iraq and the oil paradox. there is a a paradox going on here in the USA as well.

This is how it works.
The stock market went up big today. why? likely the reason is that wisconsin outcome encourages wall st to believe that the political class will make the right choices for the US economy. this is all atmospherics. but what happens if the supremes gut obamacare. that’s real money. the stock market will go up a lot more.

what’s the paradox. well hmm. its more like circumstance. the breaks going forward are going to be in favor of the US economy which reflects well on obama–even though the breaks happen in spite of him.

46. Josh: The real problem with conservativism is it doesn’t lend itself to flashy slogans that grab the spirit.

This is a good example of why I always have and always will argue for aristocracy. Since government really is too important to be left to non-elites, the elites who run it need to comprise a class born and bred for the job, whose class interest is largely identical with the greater good of the nation, who make their decisions based on a feeling for what is right and proper and compatible with succesful tradition, and whose position is generally inherited and unassailable and who consequently don’t give two shits for whatever pied piper the hoi polloi happen to be following this week.

O/T: Please pray for the repose of the soul of John J. Reilly, who passed away on May 30th from complications related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. John was a kind and wise man who devoted his life to understanding metahistory and its assosciated topics. He maintained a blog called The Long View and carried the Belmont Club on his blogroll. You can visit John’s unique blog, and also read his obituary either by visiting my blog or by just searching the terms. They aren’t hard to find. His work deserves wider recognition, especially now that he is no longer with us. Rest in peace, John.

I see a convergence between this post and the previous post titled, “Blood for Oil.” Winning a battle is not enough, you must maintain your momentum and push even harder to ensure victory in the war. And most importantly, do not give away the spoils you have claimed. Now is the time to speak to Mr and Mrs Average American about how THEIR tax dollars are being frittered away on ‘green’ boondoggles. How they are subsidizing public sector over their own job sector. How fiat currency devalues their earnings and their savings. How the more money we throw at the education department, the lower test scores seem to drop. How ‘progressives’ are moving us away from an America that led the world toward an America that would become old Europe, broke, weak and feckless.

The way forward IS the very recent past. The moniker ‘Conservative’ is not about money (josh) it is about conserving the Constitutional form of government we have been erroding for years. One with the least amount of governmental intrusion and a maximum amount of reward for personal effort. THAT creates the wealth that built this nation, the wealth the liberals want to confiscate for themselves. The novelty of the American Experiment was no more royalty, everyone has the same opportunity for greatness- and yes, for failure. That, IMHO, is where liberals go off the reservation- you can’t have great success for some without the possibilty of failure for others. We can’t ALL get a trophy for competing in life. Suck it up and get back to living.

74. Iluvtea:”These people are sick.”
Oh yes, and then some. When you consider unions gained power initially through extortion and violence, it really is not hard to understand their mind-set. Unions have become organized crime and are simply incompatible with a free market. Instead of an invisible hand, you get a bloody fist. The Obama administration is unions on steroids. Dump the Chump and the economy will resurface. Well, only if the replacement believes in a free market and works DILIGENTLY to restore it.

Charles @ 75: “the breaks going forward are going to be in favor of the US economy which reflects well on obama–even though the breaks happen in spite of him.”

Never underestimate the ability of the Best & Brightest to screw things up.

The US already has natural gas prices that are running around 1/6th of the levels Japanese are paying, because the Japanese import LNG at prices related to the oil market. German electric prices are reportedly as much as 3 times US prices, due to the need to subsidize “Green” foolishness. Under normal economic theory, airplanes should be full of Japanese & German executives heading to the US to relocate their job-providing tax-revenue-generating balance-of-payments-correcting energy consuming industries to the US.

Except that is not happening. Where are those energy-using industries flooding in from overseas? The reason is clear: Excessive regulation trumps energy prices.

Obumble & the Congressional Democrats are never ever going to approve meaningful rollback of excessive regulations. Their foolish persistence in regulating every detail of our lives is actually harming their own electoral chances, thank goodness! As someone once observed, victory contains the seeds of its own eventual defeat.

“Ironically the electorate has to … vote conservative today if there is any hope of liberal spending tomorrow.” -Wretchard

We do strive to be in touch with reality (rent if not own) and if the above statement is true then we can say that the Politician, as an archetype, is aware of reality but promises things that are not true, finessing situations as warranted, where the Ideologue insists on things that are not true but must be true for their psychological makeup to survive. This morning Fox news was discussing Bill Clinton’s full contradiction of Obama’s campaign strategy when Clinton called Romney’s business career sterling and called for extension of the Bush tax cuts. The thought occurred to me that Bill Clinton thinks Obama is an ‘amateur’ precisely because Obama is killing the goose that lays the golden egg whereas Clinton is expert at forcing it to lay without finally strangling it. He’s more ‘expert’ at holding the reigns of power in the current system. Perhaps that is because Obama is an Ideologue (true believer) and Clinton is a Politician (player). Perhaps Clinton, being raised with certain assumptions fundamentally respects America where Obama is suspect. Clinton takes for granted that the American system of government can only be played within a certain context that Obama does not recognize, even if Clinton flirts with the hard Left, or rather plays with fire. In that sense he may be more “patriotic” in that he wants the game to continue (with him, not coincidentally, still being a power-player) where Obama wants to change all the rules–fundamentally transform America. Obama is termed “anti-American” because of it. But we may be able to say that with either Obama or Clinton it’s an arrogant claim to a throne where there is no right to monarchy, whatever the title, so long as the people refuse to recognize it. As Wretchard said of Soros and his narrative, “Well if you believe him, then you deserve him.”

Matt @ 76 – Since government really is too important to be left to non-elites, the elites who run it need to comprise a class born and bred for the job, whose class interest is largely identical with the greater good of the nation, who make their decisions based on a feeling for what is right and proper and compatible with succesful tradition, and whose position is generally inherited and unassailable and who consequently don’t give two shits for whatever pied piper the hoi polloi happen to be following this week.

At first glance, one wonders if this is sarcasm. If you are producing thoroughbreds for racing, not a bad idea. If you want good governance, not so good.

Breeding folks does not necessarily produce good statesmen or governors. The conditions of birth may certainly impact the quality of education and inculcation of principals, but there are more cases of wastrels resulting from the same conditions than there are cases of good statesmen and governors.

I’m right on board with SpeakEasy@77. The trouble with conversatism begins with the name. It’s an imposed name and a misnomer. The proper (and original) name is “liberal”. It was not until ‘progressives’ tarnished their brand that they junked their own moniker, appropriated ours, and affixed the term ‘conservative’ on us. Of course at this time (the New Deal era), they had the cultural currency and momentum to pull this off, and that didn’t help. But the term ‘conservative’ is one that locks us always in relation to them. In their minds they are the ones moving the great wheel of history dialectically forward, and those who stand in their way are rendered the bitter-clingers. Reactionaries. Parochials. Blind traditionalists. Slaves to the status quo, fearful of change.

But nothing can be farther from the truth. To be liberal in the classical sense, which is what an American so-called conservative really is, is to assume a truly radical posture. It is no coincidence these Founding Fathers were seen as daring radicals. They were, among others elsewhere. Their stance was to assert and to rely on the primacy of individualism and to disavow the sheltering arms of statism. Large central states are held to be corruptive, tyrannical, capricious, and harmful to virtues of a healthy civil society. The classical liberal stand for a small set of powers and of roles, grudgingly granted, to central authorities. It insists on equality _before the law_ to all dealing with it, with strong individual protections regarding property rights, contractual rights, rights of speech and press, and religious rights. The vast majority of matters should be handled locally not only for efficiency but _by necessity_ to foster the practice of virtue in strong communites.

This assertion is a profound source of horror to the progressive and the seat of fear. The world described by classical liberals is judged by the progressive to be downright Hobbesian. What, unbridled captialism and all! It is the dog-eat-dog scene filled with all the injustices and exploitations they’ve labored all these decades and decades, inch by inch, to remedy and put right.

Conversely, the classical liberal is equally horrified by the progressive, because he knows what a disaster these progressive remedies are bound to become.

I’m with you on a lot, Matt, but I can’t say I’m with you on this Plato’s Republic sort of thing. There are no philosopher-kings. Men given too much power == tyranny.

46. Josh: The real problem with conservativism is it doesn’t lend itself to flashy slogans that grab the spirit.

This is a good example of why I always have and always will argue for aristocracy. Since government really is too important to be left to non-elites, the elites who run it need to comprise a class born and bred for the job, whose class interest is largely identical with the greater good of the nation, who make their decisions based on a feeling for what is right and proper and compatible with succesful tradition, and whose position is generally inherited and unassailable and who consequently don’t give two shits for whatever pied piper the hoi polloi happen to be following this week.

Against a rising tide of rank-and-file teachers who oppose their leaders’ extremist politics, the national offices of the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers shoveled millions in forced union dues into astroturfed, anti-Walker coffers.

According to WisconsinReporter.com, strapped state affiliates also coughed up major sums to beat back Wisconsin’s efforts to bring union workers into the 21st century in line with the rest of the workforce:

The Ohio Education Association made a
$58,000 in-kind contribution May 30, followed a day later by a
$21,000 contribution from the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

New York State United Teachers gave
$23,000 on June 1, the Massachusetts Education Association gave $17,000 on May 31, and a group of unions based in Washington, D.C., poured in
$922,000 during the past week.

@81: airplanes should be full of Japanese & German executives heading to the US to relocate their job-providing tax-revenue-generating balance-of-payments-correcting energy consuming industries to the US.

Except that is not happening. Where are those energy-using industries flooding in from overseas? The reason is clear: Excessive regulation trumps energy prices.

First, it’s a Risk-Off trading environment:

Wealthy investors are shying away from U.S. stocks and putting more money into private companies, real estate and commodities, according to a study.

…..

According to IPI, the moves are part of a broader shift, with the wealthy looking for hard assets rather than more speculative financial investments. “We are seeing a general movement toward owning real assets, and backing companies with real businesses, including startups,” said Mindy Rosenthal, executive director of IPI.

Second, the need for global financial reform is driving the flight to hard asset safety:

A year ago, you could choose from eight currencies in the G10 that met internationally accepted “risk-free” ratings criteria as measured by the cost of credit default swaps priced under 100 basis points.

Now, there are only five to choose from. A year from now, there might only be two or three.

In practical terms, what this means is that your capital, along with everyone else’s, is chasing a diminishing pool of high-quality, risk-free assets.

……

Bank demand for capital reserves is increasing markedly as they scramble to meet requirements set by the Bank for International Settlements in accordance with Basel III regulations. Created by the International Monetary Fund ostensibly to ensure adequate capital buffers in the event the stuff hits the proverbial fan, the requirements are causing banks to change the composition of the assets used to backstop their operations and to buy even more dollar-denominated assets…….

While the IMF had its heart in the right place, the corresponding connections between the banks subjected to the Basel III requirements will increase the cost of capital, change funding patterns, and produce a migration of risk that wasn’t contemplated at the time the regulations were created.

Matt #76: “This is a good example of why I always have and always will argue for aristocracy.”

Based on your description of the advantages of an aristocracy and my 25 eyars in the USAF including 4.5 years in the Pentagon, we already have one: The Federal civilian workforce.

Actual Examples:

“Okay so that program management directive took a few million dollars away from the wrong program, in addition to the one that the head guys cancelled. For that little amount of money I’m not rewriting that thing.” (Translation: Cancel the planned security upgrades at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg because I am too lazy to get off my fat ass and fix something I did wrong.)

“I don’t care if Congress passed a law. I have my manual here that tells me what to do and until someone rewrites that I going to keep right on doing what I have been the same way I have been.” (And guess who would have to get off his fat ass and rewrite the manual to match the law.)

Then there are the worst of all: the Congressional staffs.

We already have an unelected, largely unaccountable aristocracy. And they have in Wisconsin, too and just decided to do something about it.

Whatever beliefs are inclusive to the term ‘conservative’ are also present in people residing in states (countries) not guided by constitutions.

The system of beliefs therefore means more than just our instance of preference for return to the original meaning of the consitution. Rather, what is important are the values themselves in whatever state they are applied.

For example, one could argue that Jose Aznar of Spain is a conservative from our viewpoint.

Conservatism embodies the ascendance of individual liberty, limitation of the power of government, protection of the public from government. The underlying tenant is the integrity of family as the authority responsible for rearing and protecting children. It is not the state’s responsibility to shelter, clothe, nourish, or care for health of citizens.

Notice that the constitution does not discuss families (other than protection of the home from unlawful search) and does not distinguish categories of rich or poor. Those subjects are left to ‘natural law’.

The Constitution cannot function as a stand alone document. It necessarily requires, as antecedent, natural law. What means this?

The Constitution concerns the relationship of persons, individuals, with their government. It both establishes the form of that government and the protections from that government. This approach naturally rests upon the common characteristics of persons. We are typically able-bodied and able-minded. We construct shelters, seek sustenance, and otherwise care for our own survival. We typically try to improve our own condition. A consequence of our unequal capabilities and endeavors, not to mention unforeseeable events, is that some will be more successful, prospering to greater degrees than others. That is the pursuit of happiness part. No guarantees of happiness can be realistically effected. The common laws provide protection so that, in pursuing happiness, we do not violate the protected rights of others, becoming the immediate cause of their unhappiness.

Not mentioned directly in the Constitution is nature of our procreation and the subsequent manner in which we protect, teach, guide and provide for our offspring. It is part of the natural law, upon which the Constitution rests. Nothing is more natural to humans than these activities. No one has to tell us these things. We learn by example however. It’s an old tradition, dating back before recorded history.

(The above 2 paragraphs are recycled material from another blog site.)

The Constitution would not work apart from our natural characteristics. Without natural law, it is incomplete. Case in point, according to the constituion who is responsible for raising children?

Since government really is too important to be left to non-elites, the elites who run it need to comprise a class born and bred for the job, whose class interest is largely identical with the greater good of the nation, who make their decisions based on a feeling for what is right and proper and compatible with succesful tradition, and whose position is generally inherited and unassailable and who consequently don’t give two shits for whatever pied piper the hoi polloi happen to be following this week.

What a pretty fable. Here in the real world it is the “elites” who have been solidly behind every single nutty idea from Marxism to libertarianism (but I repeat myself) while the “hoi polloi” try to act as a brake on the the leader classes experiments.

Walker gets credit for getting inside the Unions’ OODA loop via the simple measure of giving the members “choice”. How can anyone on the Lib side of the argument vote against “choice”? Simple, elegant and brilliant.

Plus, it’s always good to be in a position to use their patron saint against them/

1.) The death threats against Walker now
2.) Vote fraud in Madison
3.) Vote fraud and poll intimidation in Racine where one Republican state senator was turned out. Racine county went decidedly for Walker but did not re-elect the state senator. Very fishy.

I am glad this over, but am sure we haven’t seen the last of the violent lefties and union thugs….”

It is no coincidence these Founding Fathers were seen as daring radicals. They were, among others elsewhere. Their stance was to assert and to rely on the primacy of individualism and to disavow the sheltering arms of statism.

The Founders did not think in terms of “individualism” or “statism”. They were not proto-libertarians and were not restricted to the cartoonishly simple libertarian view of the world. They did not view the world as “individuals” on the one hand versus “the state” on the other. Free your mind and jettison this two-dimensional way of thinking.

Matt is either joking, has pie in the sky delusions or is a paid flac for the Chi-Coms.
The benevolent dictator is a contradiction in terms. It is also a Chinese theory of government.
The problem with elites is who decides they are elites? In a democracy voters decide.
Matt is right in that ALL societies are ran by elites. The differences are in how those elites are selected. Ballots or Bullets are the most common methods.
Elites, of course, run things so as to maintain their grip on power. Regardless of how they got there in the first place.

“The activists at the Daily Kos could be forgiven for thinking that what Wasserman Schultz really said was “we know Barrett is toast in Wisconsin.”"

I have observed that at many of the moonbat echo chambers, the accepted view was the Wisconsin election was very close, in the end “progressive reason” would be seen and Walker defeated. The MSM initially voiced that narrative by presenting bogus exit polls. While listening to NPR, it was my impression that there was general moonbat surprise that Walker won.

Walker’s victory was a victory for democracy. I’m glad it happened. We conservatives need to be careful about falling into the trap of confirmation bias that comes from operating within “echo chambers”.

On the subject of the rise-and-fall of socialism, France’s socialist president hopes to reduce France’s retirement age to 60, refer to:

The list of successful examples of aristocracies “working” is coextensive with the list of kingdoms, empires, and dynasties that have ever reigned upon the earth. Government just is aristocracy; that is the way of things. The opposite of aristocracy is not freedom but interregnum.

The problem, Trex, with you and others here, is that having been trained in the Whiggish tradition, your historical memory is formed only by those rare instances in which aristocracy has notably broken down (e.g. 1789, 1917). Never thrown into your scales are the long and (mostly) stable centuries prior to the final collapse. It is as if you pronounced the Parthenon a failure because its final destiny assumed the form of a heap of marble rubble. It was grand while it stood, and it signified something. Aristocracies and monuments both end in death, often ignominious death, as does everything else. But while they are living and strong, they are the best that mankind can produce.

Now permit me to question you. Many of the posters here have military backgrounds. Naval history is an especially favorite topic on this blog. So tell me, is a ship commanded by a body of elected representatives or by a captain? Is “freedom,” in the libertarian sense, allowed in any infantry regiment you’re aware of? Does the simple soldier follow his own inclinations or does he stick to his training and his orders? What would happen to him if he departed from them? And if the military takes such things seriously, because it must deal with matters of reality, why then should the ship of state be managed with any less discipline?

So there are no philosopher-kings, are there? Well, are there sea captains, then? Are there men who know more about seafaring and battle than others, whose training and experience make them fit for command? Do they not lead by right, and is obedience to them not obligatory?

So this sounds like sarcasm, does it? Was it British sarcasm that won the empire on which the sun never set? Was the sound of sarcasm ringing in the air when Rome destroyed Carthage, or when the Maccabees rallied from their mountain redoubt to retake the land of Israel? Or was it discipline, faith, honor, and force—the aristocratic virtues?

So breeding does not work for people, does it? Why not? I take it you think that early childhood experiences must count for something. Would not someone who was raised on a large estate, and from his earliest days was groomed to manage and inherit it, and if he was given the proper education and emotional judgment—would not such a person be a good steward of his grounds, provided the lack of natural talent did not prevent it? I assume you are a firm believer in the rights of property, and a fortiori the rights of heritable property.

Do you believe in individualism, in the strength of private judgment, in the singular event, the unforeseen incident, the personal character? How then can you believe in democracy, God love you? How then can you believe in this fetish for counting noses, this passion for the large number? How can you submit yourselves to a constitution designed by “radicals” (as you yourself admit them to be), which is nothing but old-fashioned Kantianism and Freemasonry, that wellspring of all liberalism and Godlessness?

When will you Whigs come to your senses? When will you realize the glaring inconsistencies in your thought? I have met people, some of them on this blog, who will tell you in all seriousness that the US constitution was inspired by God, that it represents the single biggest moral and philosophical advance in recorded history, that it is a strategic vision for world peace. Ladies and gentlemen, that is nationalist self-delusion of North Korean proportions. There is no such virtue in the constitution. All virtue, all nobility and saintliness that exists under the sun, ever was and ever shall be found in men, and only men.

In THE RADICALISM OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Gordon Wood challenges a generation of scholarship by consensus historians who have interpreted the American Revolution as a conservative rebellion in defense of the status quo. Extending the Revolutionary era backward to the 1760’s and forward to the early nineteenth century, Wood argues that the country experienced a genuine social transformation. One class did not overthrow another, but social relationships—the connecting links between people—were permanently changed.

Wood develops this thesis by examining the country’s transition from monarchy to republic to democracy. Monarchical society linked people to those above and below them in a hierarchy of rank. The small depended on the great and such personal relationships constituted the ligaments that held society together. The republicanism that the colonists embraced during the Revolution dissolved the old monarchical connections of hierarchy, patronage, and dependency; in this sense it was as radical for the eighteenth century as Marxism would be for the nineteenth.

The TV Watchers will understand what happened in WI according to what the TV Media tell them. This is how The Left keeps their narrative alive. It’s very funny to watch and hear conservative dissect the factual errors in the media when the TV Watchers only know what the headlines and repeated talking points allow.

The Left is on offense the Right is waiting for some outside official to penalize violation of the rules or false statements.

The patriot leaders envisioned the new American republic as a nation of freeholders governed by gentlemen of disinterested virtue whose leisure and independence from petty commercial concerns elevated them above the corruptions of self interest. Instead, artisans and mechanics took to heart the rhetoric of equality and elected men of the middling ranks who promised to champion local interests. As a result, America became the first modern society to bring ordinary people into government as rulers as well as voters—a bloodless transition to democracy that the Founding Fathers had neither anticipated nor desired.

Naval history is an especially favorite topic on this blog. So tell me, is a ship commanded by a body of elected representatives or by a captain? Is “freedom,” in the libertarian sense, allowed in any infantry regiment you’re aware of?

A ship is not a community or a polity. Neither is an infantry regiment, or a corporation. And I don’t believe in “freedom” in the libertarian sense, since it looks a lot like your notion of freedom. Libertarians do not believe in civic liberty.

Well, are there sea captains, then? Are there men who know more about seafaring and battle than others, whose training and experience make them fit for command? Do they not lead by right, and is obedience to them not obligatory

That’s certainly a point of view. It’s not a point of view compatible with the American experiment though. The Founders rejected monarchy and aristocracy.

The people who think as you do in America today are on the political left.

Matt – Aristocracies working – what means this? The people ruled by aristocrates lived until they died. That’s about all the meaning that can be inferred. But this happens under all forms of governance, so that’s little commendation for aristocracy.

Military does not purchase much in this discussion. There is precious little liberty there.

The viewpoint being offered here is that it offers no advantage for a constitutional republic, which we once had. See Rick @ 103 & 105.

No. Better we should seek leadership, integrity, and statesmanship skills where they lie, rather than expect hereditary descendance of those qualities.

These are not things that people are born with, but that are developed by the will of the host.

My thoughts run in opposition to this statement, but elucidate your meaning and support, if you will.

You will not find any discussion of “statism” in the writings of the Founders. The concept had not yet come into existence. And there is virtually no discussion of “individuals” either. The libertarian view of the world – that everything exists on a continuum labeled “statism” at one end and “individualism” at the other – was completely alien to people of the Founders era. The entire collectivist->individualist construct is a leftist invention of recent origin.

Understand this and you’ll understand how the Founders could sincerely believe in liberty and also be slave-holders.

The revolutionaries went through the era of the Articles of Confederation. It’s not mentioned.

During that era, every attempt was made to politically go back in time — as best could be done.

The Colonies, during there hey day, were aristocrat-free. No one was paying land-rents to aristocrats; which was the linch-pin of aristocratic society. This was the relationship that required tenants/ serfs/ share-croppers to ‘get leave’ to do anything that might impinge, negatively, upon the income of the estate owner/ master/ laird.

All the rest of that claptrap is Leftist revisionism.

It was and is unbearable that the nation’s founders were, to a man, on the Conservative/ businessman side of the political spectrum. Not one of the King’s men was represented at Independence Hall. Go figure.

At your 103…

The typical colonist lived virtually a cashless, subsistence life: definitively on the frontier.

Their absolute lack of specie was at the heart of their extreme indignation over the various stamp taxes.

( The Crown was trying to get blood from a turnip: the colonial export engine was confined to tobacco at the time. That’s why the South was such an economically gigantic force during the period. Wealthy, northern, shipowners made their cake on the IMPORT side of the ledger.

Just like Hawaii today, the sea trade was wildly imbalanced. Loads were bulging westbound. Tobacco was the only eastbound cargo of note; it and the meager beginnings of the cotton trade.

The colonies had no manufacturing exports to speak of. No foodstuffs were exported either: they’d spoil — and the colonies didn’t have food surpluses to speak of, either.

Making Wood a boob. He forced his counter-factual thesis to rebirth elitism. )

Matt – Democracy is not our form of government, as established by our Constitution. With the indulgence of BC folks, let’s carefully acknowledge that democracies are fatally flawed for the reasons noted by Madison, tyranny of the majority.

We had a Constitutional Republic, where CO & XO are appointed by Electoral College, not majority vote of all citizens. We perverted this somehow. It had some important protections which are now ineffective.

This doesn’t negate consent of the governed as the source of limited powers of government.

“The TV Watchers will understand what happened in WI according to what the TV Media tell them. This is how The Left keeps their narrative alive.”
The primary narrative last night —by MSNBC and the union bosses—was that a big influx of outside money (e.g. Koch Brothers) swamped the airwaves with right-wing propaganda, and the public swallowed it whole. No mention of union funds or the gratis pro-recall coverage by the MSM (aka ObamaPravda). The irony of Obama attending six elite fund-raisers at same time he was avoiding the Wisconsin recall went unnoticed.
The best the Democrat cable hacks could muster was an exit poll that favored Obama. Never mind that the same exit poll declared the Walker-Barrett race as “50-50″.
In spite last night’s results, the Ministry of Truth is alive and well.

tr @ 87: This is a good example of why I always have and always will argue for aristocracy.

Roman empire, US Army, British Empire, any empire, any hierarchical organization, any large organization, but it’s a matter of the details of how the aristocracy is itself governed and how it governs others.

For forms of Government let fools contest;
Whate’er is best administered is best.

81. Kinuachdrach
Under normal economic theory, airplanes should be full of Japanese & German executives heading to the US to relocate their job-providing tax-revenue-generating balance-of-payments-correcting energy consuming industries to the US.
……….
U.S. Chemical Companies Benefit from Low Natural Gas Prices
Posted on May 4, 2012 by Enerdynamicshttp://blog.enerdynamics.com/2012/05/04/u-s-chemical-companies-benefit-from-low-natural-gas-prices/
by Christina Nagy-McKenna, Enerdynamics Instructor

As natural gas and coal companies watch their stock prices sink due to low natural gas prices, U.S. chemical companies are experiencing a boom and watching their stocks rise. Companies such as Dow Chemical Company (Dow) and DuPont saw first quarter 2012 profits exceed the expectations of Wall Street analysts. Both companies produce products that use natural gas as a feedstock. They and other chemical companies are taking advantage of cheap natural gas by expanding facilities and building new ones.

@112: Making Wood a boob. He forced his counter-factual thesis to rebirth elitism.

From his book:

“No doubt the cost that America paid for this democracy was high–with its vulgarity, its materialism, its rootlessness, its anti-intellectualism. But there is no denying the wonder of it and the real earthly benefits it brought to the hitherto neglected and despised masses of common laboring people. The American Revolution created this democracy, and we are living with its consequences still.” (p. 269).

SteveM, I most succinctly linked the Founding Fathers, and today’s ‘conservatives’, with Classical Liberalism, not Libertarianism. And they most certainly did think in terms of the state vs. the individual. Consider this proposition: All men are created are equal, with unalienable rights endowed by their Creator. Boom. There goes the whole edifice undergirding European states and whole societies, the one not a small number of colonists fled to America to escape. Theirs was an enterprise of liberation from tyranny, and not just to replace one tyranny with another, but to be rid of the whole albatross of the oppressive state once and for all. That was the aim.

They can not even get together and tell the same lies!I signed up on A DGA site(Democrat Governors Association)to see what propaganda the other side was putting out.It is hard to believe what they have been saying over the last several weeks as I have averaged over 2 emails a day from them.They are noyhing but a bunch of lies and the last one today was sent by Colm O’comartum in which He stated that Walker had out spent thier man 10 to 1.He should have talked to Debbie idiot-shultz so at least they would be telling the same lie!!!

Baghdad Bob was captured by the US military, interrogated, and released. He now lives in the UAE.

Tokyo Rose was the subject of a search, arrest and trial that was the feature of a TV piece many years ago. Turns out there was more than one Tokyo Rose, including an Australian, Japanese Americans, and several Filipinos. One American citizen, Iva Toguri Ikoku, was put on trial for treason in 1948, imprisoned for 6 years and fined $10,000. She was given a presidental pardon by Jimmy Carter in 1977.

I voted at about 7:25 am was #51 in my rural town West of Appleton. First time I had to wait in line, but also the first time I voted early like that.

119%
Early in the day, based on new registrations and turnout some Madistoner official predicted a 119% turnout give the rates of voting and new registrations continued as they were. However, a bit later that was walked back. Again later in the day another (or the same) Madistoner official again predicted like 90% or so turnout, and again walked back. Clearly hoping the ground game was doing its thing bringing in lots of Madistoned voters. Apparently, even if 100% of Madistone and MKE turned out, it would not have been enough to overcome Governor Walker’s margin of victory.

The Wisconsin Connection
The RNC is manned at the top levels by ex-RPW officials. I attended a workshop on GOTV put on by Rick Wiley, one very sharp guy now with the RNC.

Act 10 was Staying No Matter What
Tom Barret was no more going to repeal Act 10 than former Governor Doyle was going to fix things in the first place. Had he won, he would put on the show, huff and puff, and blame “former” Gov. Walker for the bad and take credit for the good. Governor Doyle did not run for reelection for a reason, he saw it coming and as another friend would say “Governor Doyle (a wholly owned subsidiary of WEAC) does not have the political muscle to fix the budget for real”. Indeed.

Katy Falk I thin thought she would be able to repeal it, but again there is the matter of of assembly and senate races to win, just redrawn to favor the RPW.

Riding that Tiger High on Tiger
The slap was a perfect recap of the entire recall campaign. The left relied on thuggery and intimidation to attempt to thwart Act 10 and it did not work. The bongo bangers were not able to make Gov. Walker blink and they certainly did not convince people working 8 hour days to vote for their cause. It was funny shortly after Act 10 passed I remember hearing a comment on how a lot of lefties were shocked their antics did not cause Gov. Walker to blink.

Obama in Wisconsin?
I would not be too sure this race has coattails that Mitt can ride, but at least we can be more confident of the RPW turnout machine. People in this state do not cheer for politics like they cheer for football. It was not uncommon back in ’04 to see people sporting Fiendgold AND W schwag.

Turnout is Not Just for Dems Anymore
The conventional wisdom is high turnout elections favor the Dems. Not anymore, in fact I would posit the opposite is true, given that it seems more of the GOP GOTV is volunteer based and the Dem operations are more often paid for efforts. I recall hearing some Dem worker admitted to getting $25/hour.

The Mayor only spent 4 million, but the pro-union primary challenger spent a bunch, too, and then there was the costs of all 11 recall petition drives, as well as the recall campaign spending for the Statehouse and Supreme Court races. That’s money that won’t be spent on the ‘Bamster this fall. I would guess total spending on all that would come much nearer to matching Gov. Walker’s $30 million spending.

This is a significant turning point. AFAIK, public unions have been a core Dem support group. When they can draw on public funds via their members, and the channel it to the Dems, it essentially meant that Dems had a secured pipeline of tax-payer funds always available to draw on for their campaigns.

With Walker’s victory and the events in the other cities, this spigot has been turned off. When it occurs all over the US, the Dems will take a huge hit to any campaign efforts. Does anybody have any estimates of the funding decrease they’ll suffer?

I like her. I think she may be able to walk my dogs, clean my TOILET, etc. with a bit of training. A domestic she is. A little LOONIE but heck when she is out of a job and no monies coming in from the public sow pit, when the voters finally wake up and say why should these politicians get a free ride = pension, healthcare for serving the public, in the public’s interest. TIme? Lock N’ Load? GOD bless America

How I wish I had a beater car. The DPW is holding their convention in nearby Appleton this weekend, how cool would it be too festoon that beater car with Walker schwag and cruise College Ave. up and down all weekend?

Of course, I would be sure everything would strictly street legal (all lights working, etc), because it would be obvious what I would be doing, trying to goad a dummocrat into their usual schtick and the Cops (while not necessarily being supportive of the Dummocrats) would rather schoo me off of the Ave rather than being called into to break up a fight.

Another reason Obama (PBUH) was not all that supportive either is because of the obvious diversion of funds, resources, and goodwill towards the Dummocrats. Oh well, gotta let that primal scream out.

My brother and I were raised by grandparents who always voted the Republican ticket. When we became voting age we did the same, although not always understanding why. As I grew up, graduated college, married and started a family, I started paying attention to politics, beginning with Reagan and continuing from there. I really began paying attention during the Clinton years, becoming a conservative and starting to be able to articulate why I believed what I did. My brother on the other hand married into a family from Madison Wisconsin. His mother in law is a retired schoolteacher. As he was welcomed into their family his political ideology changed. Near as I can tell he and his wife are staunch liberals who also are very environmentally aware. He likes the volt for example. We usually don’t talk politics these days as he is my only brother and I value family harmony. Part of me would love to be a fly on the wall of their house this last year or so as Obama is being revealed as a incompetent failing president. I would love to know if their thinking is changing (he and my sister in law are very smart people) or if they are too entrenched. I also would have love to have been able to listen in at his mother in law’s house tuesday as the recall election results came in.

Well, in this race, she surely couldn’t use the racist card like they do constantly. Did they so quickly forget that in 2008, they had an awful of white voters vote for O. First she came out when she thought Walker might be defeated and say that it will be a referendum of what is going on in November and what galls them, it wasn’t even that close. I give the voters in Wisconsin a whole lot of credit. They are finally waking up. They try to blame so many things on the failure of GM, but since my brother and father worked for GM, it is pretty clear to me it was the unions that killed GM. Now with GM’s somewhat recovery, the people really hurt were the taxpayers who bailed them out and GM still has not paid all the money back but even gave bonuses but the stockholders took a shellacking. The unions are like everyone else in power, they try to control rather than do what is best for their workers and the country. What upsets me, is the imtimdation they use, like the dems walking out on the vote, even going to other states, telling business owners if they remain neutral, they will be going out of business. If you have a good cause, you do not need to use intimidation.

The Romanovs ruled for 300 years and built an empire. The Habsburgs ruled for more than 600 and nearly consolidated all Europe under their control. Seems pretty successful to me. Perhaps you ought to rethink this matter and try again.